Still Walking in Circles
Great Public Schools - Pittsburgh (GPS-P) just published a report which is a plan for improving the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The report was announced in the Sunday Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Feb. 16, 2014. It should be noted that this report was not sanctioned by the District, nor did it formally include input from District educators. But it does involve a large group of community members that have a vested interest in the school district's success.Great Public Schools - Pittsburgh is a coalition of the following groups.
- Action United
- One Pittsburgh
- Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN)
- PFT400
- SEIU Healthcare PA
- Yinzercation
"We believe that turning to the community schools strategy - making schools the hearts of our neighborhoods - is the most important improvement we can make in the coming years. Community schools level the playing field and provide access to programs, services and resources that all students need to succeed in school and in life. We believe that all students ought to have equal access to education, including homeless children, children in foster care, children in residential placements, children with disabilities, immigrant students and English language learners.Clearly, the organizations that make up Great Public Schools have a deeply ingrained belief that all students are capable of high achievement given the right opportunities and resources. Their new initiative focuses on two strategies to achieve its goals.
By committing ourselves to a community schools strategy, we are able to provide all Pittsburgh students what they deserve, culturally relevant curriculum; schools in which they are safe, respected and valued; highly qualified teachers who are given the resources and support they need; full arts and athletic programs; smaller class sizes; a reduction in high-stakes testing; dedication to equity, inclusion and racial justice; and so much more. If our district - and we as a city - can make this commitment, we have the opportunity to inspire all of our children and instill in them a lifelong passion for learning."
The first strategy is to engage the community in a long range planning process in order to truly implement community schools. The second strategy, because many of the report's suggestions will increase costs, is to find more revenue for the district.
On the same day that the P-G announced the GPS-P report, they also ran an editorial titled: Pittsburgh must rededicate itself to closing the black/white achievement/opportunity gap: Still walking in circles. James Stewart, the author, states:
It has been 20 years since the initial lawsuit regarding the District's achievement gap. It might not surprise you to know that since the initial lawsuit, there have been 6 different Superintendents, 3 different union presidents, many different school board members and more reports, papers and strategic initiatives than you can count. Here is a listing of just the current initiatives listed on the District's website: The Pittsburgh Promise, Empowering Effective Teachers, Equity: Getting to All, Whole Child-Whole Community and Envisioning Educational Excellence. These initiatives sound similar to what the GPS-P report is trying to accomplish.In 2010 the primary driver for disparity-reduction efforts was a September 2006 conciliation agreement among the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, Pittsburgh Public Schools and Advocates for African-American Students, prompted by a lawsuit the advocates brought in the early 1990s. The district pledged to remedy 94 problems over a five-year period.A volunteer Equity Advisory Panel was empaneled to monitor compliance and recommend strategies, methods and programs to address disparities. The relationship between the EAP and the PPS was often uneasy, in part because the EAP continually highlighted shortcomings in the district’s initiatives.At the end of the agreement, minimal progress in reducing the gap had occurred. Consequently, a second agreement was reached extending the human rights commission’s oversight through the 2013-2014 school year.
The author states that we are no closer to closing the achievement gap now than we were when we started this process 20 years ago. He is correct. Imagine, the Pittsburgh Promise offers $40,000 toward a college education if a Pittsburgh student graduates with a 2.5 GPA. Yet, a report from the Schott Foundation "The Urgency of Now" shows that in the year 2010, only 44% of Pittsburgh African American males are graduating high school, much less getting a 2.5 GPA and going to college.
Here is what has stayed the same: the achievement gap (race or SES) has not improved. The graduation rate by race and SES has not improved. And the Board and the Union continue to be adversaries rather than partners.
On paper the GPS-P plan seems to make sense. Basically they are asking for more programming, more staff, more resources and a greater focus on community. It's hard not to agree with everything they suggest. Unfortunately, there is a problem with their approach. It won't work.
Let's look at two slides from the Superintendent's State of the District report in Dec., 2013. The first refers to Revenues and the second refers to Class Size.
We are spending more money than any of our peer districts in Pennsylvania! And we have the smallest class size of our peer districts in Pennsylvania! And during the 1990's we had arts programs, physical education programs, small classes, quality special education programs, high quality teachers (only 3% currently listed as unsatisfactory) and fewer high stakes tests than we currently have. During that time period, the achievement gap did not budge.
Do you really think more revenue will solve the problem? Do you really think that running a community school will lower the achievement gap? It is not surprising that a coalition of parents, educators, students, community members, local unions, faith-based leaders and social justice advocates are reaching back into their past and envisioning a school like the one they went to. The problem is the world has changed. Our urban youth are confronted with a life that is more difficult than one can imagine: fractured families, constant movement from school to school, poverty, addiction, loss of quality community support groups and lack of hope. And the employment situation is worse than one can remember. The mills are closed and there are few places where one can make a living wage without a high school diploma and some form of post high school training. The traditional model of school was never intended to succeed with a population of students that had so many barriers in their way. The traditional model of a school filtered students into the steel mills, the trades, the military or into college. Frankly, our urban communities are struggling as much as our schools (Hazelwood, Homewood, Lincoln, Larimer, Spring HIll, Spring Garden, the Hill, North Side, West End, Wilkinsburg, Penn Hills, Braddock, Rankin, Swissvale, McKeesport, McKees Rocks, etc.). The old model of education won't work. The issue is not one of money or resources. We need a model of education that is specific to the needs of our students - one that is overwhelmingly supportive, demanding, aligned with the 21st century workplace and accountable for student achievement.
Dr. Barbara Sizemore, was a lifetime urban educator who worked in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Washington D.C. At the end of her life, she authored a book entitled "Walking in Circles: The Black Struggle for School Reform." Angela P. Dodson, in a review of the book states
Ultimately and sadly, she came to believe that much of her good work and that of others to provide schools that actually taught something to poor, Black and otherwise disenfranchised students was an exercise in futility, thus the title Walking in Circles. The enemy, she states emphatically and often, is an educational hierarchy and supporting political structure devoted “to the preservation and expansion of White supremacy and its counterpart, the imputation of Black inferiority.” That would mean that our society does little to improve the schools and to make sure each child learns because the power structure has a vested interest in maintaining its own status. It is a cynical view, but one based on her considerable experience on the front lines of urban education.Whether you agree with Dr. Sizemore regarding race, or think that the issue is one of class, few would disagree with her notion of an "educational hierarchy and supporting political structure" that limits our ability to reform urban education. We can't keep trying the same thing over and over and expect different results. OUR CURRENT MODEL OF EDUCATION IS NOT WORKING, NOR WILL IT WORK. I would have been more excited by the Greater Public Schools - Pittsburgh report if it pointed at successful districts or communities that have succeeded with their methodology. They can't.
There do exist different models of education that are working, in certain District schools, in certain local charter schools and in certain local private schools. We should be looking at schools that work to envision the future. What they all have in common is strong leadership, engaged and talented faculties, comprehensive support systems for both the students and adults, and high student achievement by any measure. They all believe that providing a quality education for urban youth is a life or death struggle.
It is time to break the circle and walk toward something that works.
